One-Pot Cooking - Save Time and Money
So, your tummy is rumbling but you are short on time. You don’t want to blow another £10 on a takeaway, but the clock is ticking. It’s a dilemma, right?
Fear not. The one-pot dish is here to rescue you. Quick to prepare and cook, significantly cheaper than ordering a pizza, and hardly any washing up!
If time is a factor, whether you have a lot of studying to plough through or a big night out with friends planned, cleaning and drying the dishes can eat into your evening. As the name suggests, this can be avoided if you make a one-pot meal.
It is also fair to say that cooking isn’t every student’s cup of tea. While some are naturally gifted in the kitchen and instantly become the Nigella Lawson or Jamie Oliver of their student flat, others understandably have limited culinary experience, having become used to the luxury of mum and dad doing the honours.
Recipe for success – even for beginners
If you fall into the ‘novice’ category, one-pot dishes are a great choice. They provide a more gentle introduction to the mysterious world of cooking and are invariably straightforward to put together. It is a much less daunting scenario than having three different pans on the go and more food in the oven while you are trying to flick through five pages of recipe book instructions!
Admittedly, it is not as exciting a process as a bunch of pals drooling over the plethora of takeaway menus and selecting your favourite guilty pleasure before settling in front of the telly and waiting for the door buzzer to sound half-an-hour later. But managing a budget is a challenge for students at the best of times, and when fast food becomes the norm rather than a treat, you are in danger of running out of money quicker than you anticipated.
Not only is one-pot cooking a financially-friendly way of operating, do not underestimate the sense of achievement you will feel when you are tucking into a meal prepared and produced by you. Even better, get the gang around to your place and cook for everyone – it’s a great social activity, and next time it will be someone else’s turn to cook for you!
If you are responsible for what you eat, you might also be more inclined to eat healthily. Takeaways are all well and good, but not many of them contain any of our five-a-day portions of fruit or vegetable.
Where to start
There’s nothing to lose. Save precious time and money and give it a go. Soups and stews are popular one-pot meals, as are the three Cs – casserole, chilli and curry.
Get started with one of the thousands of simple online recipes, stock up on the required ingredients, and get ready to become king or queen of your kitchen!